Red, White & Royal Blue

by Casey McQuiston

“As your mother, I can appreciate that maybe this isn’t your fault, but as the president, all I want is to have the CIA fake your death and ride the dead-kid sympathy into a second term.”

I’ll be honest: this was flagged at least once in the editing process for this book by an editor (I can’t remember which) who thought this joke might be a touch too dark, but I thought it was a great “I brought you into this world and I’ll take you out” type of mom line. Ellen Claremont is a fusion of every unapologetic southern mom I’ve ever met and the type of brutal humor you hear on Veep. I’m glad we kept it.